Realbotix Claim Their Sex Robots Could Kill You

I recently argued here that there’s a danger of ‘sex robot’ manufacturers deliberately making hysteric soundbites as regards the supposed possible dangers of their products, simply in order to get some clicks and media attention. It’s already backfiring in that South Korea has become the first, and very likely not the last, to come close to banning sex robots before they are even a real thing.

If looks could kill…

Of course, this is a tiny sex tech and future porn blog that has no influence on anything, so it’s no surprise to learn no less than Realbotix – the most famous ‘sex robot’ maker and spin off of RealDoll – have jumped on the bandwagon and are being reported in the media as claiming that anyone who buys one of their ‘sex robots’ might end up being murdered by them (their Realbotix sex robot).

SEX robots could suddenly malfunction and attack their randy masters, an expert has warned.

Brick Dollbanger, who works for sex robot company Realbotix, has claimed that a simple coding error could turn the robots against their owners.

“I’ve always said, when a synthetic can support itself, that synthetic is going to be much stronger than a normal human.”

He added: “It’s going to be more durable, instead of having bones it’s going to have high impact, plastic or aluminium frame, it’s going to be very strong, and it won’t get tired, it won’t stop unless it runs out of an energy supply.

“Unless you can stop it with some kind of projectile, like a gun or something like that, if this thing got out of control it could do some serious damage.”

Brick also said sex robots are going to have a “durable” synthetic build, and will have a high impact plastic or aluminium frame.

The sexbots are also going to be very strong and won’t get tired. They also won’t stop unless they run out of energy supply, Brick said.

The idea that sex robots will be able to any time soon, for example, move themselves around a bed into different sexual positions, let alone physically murder their owners, is a complete fantasy, as anyone who has had any experience of even the most expensive sexdolls will testify. We are probably 20 years away at least from that, and even RealBotix appear to have abandoned their sex robot ‘Harmony’ (other than as a marketing exercise) in favor of AI ‘virtual sexbot’ smartphone apps (see the Wired article below).

This is not the first time Matt McMullen has courted clicks and the wrath of feminist legislators with the unwise media press releases of his employee ‘Brick Dollbanger’. Last year, while feminists wer calling for sex robots to be banned on the grounds that they would encourage rape, Mr Dollbanger was boasting that he ‘broke’ the company’s proto sex robot (‘Harmony’) whilst testing her for the company, and had been asked to ‘knock her about’ and ‘knock her senseless’.

‘You Are Already Having Sex With Robots’

A much more realistic and intelligent discussion on sex robots and the future of digisexuality came in Wired magazine recently. It recognizes the distant fantasy of sex robots in every home, and instead sees the future of synthetic sex relationships in virtual love bot relationships, as indeed Matt McMullen recognizes as well.

Distracted as many of us are by the wall of nipples at Realbotix headquarters, this is the point that’s most often overlooked. “There’s a much broader market for AI-based apps than there is for sex robots,” says Ellen Kaufman, an Indiana University doctoral student focusing on technologically mediated intimacy. To a digitally hyperliterate millennial, say, sexbots are kinda gross, but sexting with a lovebot might be kinda cool—if it’s smart enough to convince you it’s human. Realbotix, land of so much hardware, knows this: The newer Harmony app lets you chat with a conversational AI, even if you haven’t shelled out a couple thousand dollars for an actual doll. The app’s user base outnumbers doll sales. Other services, like Pornhub, have also experimented with “adult” chatbots. Most recently, an app called Juicebox has been providing sexy chatrooms-cum-sexual-wellness lessons helmed by an AI chatbot named Slutbot.

It’s easy to see how digital sexbots could fit discreetly into the average person’s life (or pocket). People are already intimate with their phones: They cradle them, caress them, and, according to Pornhub’s data, watch most of their porn on them. From a certain point of view, taking the sexbot digital is just good business, just meeting people where they are. The question isn’t so much whether people will be getting sexy with cyberspace, it’s how—and what “sexy” will come to mean.